


When Work Follows You Home

by Nevanna



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/F, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Mind Control, Past Relationship(s), Power Dynamics, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22139059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: Monsters are controlling Melanie's life in more ways than one, and Georgie does her best to provide a stable presence.
Relationships: Georgie Barker & Jonathan Sims, Georgie Barker/Melanie King
Comments: 7
Kudos: 77
Collections: Hurt/Comfort Bingo - Round 10, The_Magnusquerade





	When Work Follows You Home

**Author's Note:**

> This story satisfies the "job-related trauma" prompt (my wild card) for Hurt/Comfort Bingo. I tried to interlock it with the other stories in the Magnusquerade AU (especially [The Necessary Compromises of a Demanding Career](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034661)), but hopefully it stands reasonably well on its own.

_“Are we going out tonight?” Alex called from across the room._

_“I can’t,” Georgie whispered, staring at the list of assignments. She’d never even_ seen _some of them before, let alone started them. “I have too much work to do.” The term was almost over. How could she have just forgotten it all? What had she been_ doing _, all this time?_

 _Alex tugged the pile of papers from her hand. She was wearing the blue T-shirt she’d silkscreened herself, for the first protest that they’d attended together. Her eyes were glazed, her skin cold and pale and slack, and her voice was a rasping parody of itself: “_ She _isn’t going to like that.”_

Georgie’s neck was still throbbing ( _painfully, deliciously_ ) when she opened her eyes. She touched the spot as she checked her reflection in the bathroom mirror, not exactly afraid of what she might find, but relieved when she didn’t see any marks.

Knowing that she wouldn’t be sleeping again anytime soon, she retreated into her studio and pulled up the raw audio of the latest _What the Ghost?_

 _“…I’m your guide to the unexplained, Georgie Barker, and I’m lucky to welcome an amazing guest to this week’s discussion of campus hauntings: the unstoppable host of_ Ghost Hunt UK, _Melanie King!”_

Georgie would have to edit out some unwanted feedback over the introduction (it sounded a lot like her cat did when he was angry, even though she’d been careful to shut him out before the recording), but the words “campus hauntings” came through loud and clear.

-

Most of the party guests had already been drinking enthusiastically by the time Andy suggested a round of “Never Have I Ever: Spooky Edition.” Melanie rolled her eyes, protesting that they already knew each other’s best ghost stories.

“I don’t think Georgie does,” Toni pointed out. Her birthday tiara had long since slipped to one side. “We don’t know hers, either. Don’t you want to make sure your plus-one has a good time?”

“You up for it?” Melanie asked Georgie.

“Sure.”

“Good girl.” Toni bounced up to fetch another bottle and enough cups for the group.

The first round of questions was more or less what Georgie would have expected: _Never have I ever had a conversation with a ghost. Never have I ever astral projected or heard someone claim they had. Never have I ever given a statement to the Magnus Institute, even as a joke._ Melanie looked even more disgusted at that, muttering something about how that place didn’t need anyone else’s help to look ridiculous.

“Ridiculous?” someone echoed from the sofa. “Didn’t you once shoot an episode about a possessed teddy bear?” Melanie’s head whipped around, her eyes narrowed.

“Got a problem with that?” she spat.

“Oi, sheath those claws!” Andy protested.

“Yeah, this carpet can take a lot,” Toni added. “But I’d rather not have to wash blood out of it. Speaking of which…” She glanced about the circle. “Never have I ever met a vampire.”

Georgie sipped her drink. She was the only one, and it didn’t occur to her, in the moment, that she might have made a mistake.

Then the moment passed. “Ooh, I knew I wouldn’t regret this!” Toni squealed. “Tell us more!”

“No one else had to!” Georgie protested. She’d played a few rounds of this game before, mostly in university. Her old boyfriend, Jon, had also been prone to pestering the other players for more details when he wasn’t satisfied with their answers.

“He didn’t sparkle, did he? ’Cause I can see how that would embarrass you.”

“I’m not even sure _she_ really was one,” Georgie lied.

“But you’re pretty sure,” Andy chimed in. “Come on, tell us. Even if it’s kinky.” He brayed an unpleasant laugh. “Especially if it’s kinky.”

“Shut it!” Melanie exclaimed suddenly. “She doesn’t have to tell her story if she doesn’t want to.”

Georgie shot Melanie a grateful look, and couldn’t resist thanking her out loud, later, as they were hunting through the pile of coats.

Melanie gave a dismissive wave. “Andy’s usually a little less of a pig.” Her eyes fell on the tail of her striped scarf and she tugged it free from someone’s sleeve. “He knows I won’t let him get away with anything, which actually makes for a pretty decent living situation.”

“I’m still glad I got to see you again,” Georgie said, and this time, she was telling the truth.

Melanie nodded. “You have my number, right? Text me if you ever want to meet up for another drink. I won’t even make you answer any more annoying questions.”

-

That drink eventually led into dinner (at one of the restaurants that sponsored Melanie’s YouTube channel), where they talked about all the hauntings that they hadn’t discussed on the air, and places that they’d visit if they could, and about films they’d loved when they were growing up. _That_ led to dates at the cinema that, after Melanie kissed Georgie outside their front door, she finally let herself _think_ of as dates. And one of _those_ ended at Melanie’s flat, where they exchanged their personal stories of the supernatural, including one that Georgie had never told anyone else: not her mum, not the therapist who’d pronounced her ready to return to academic life, and none of the people that she’d dated since.

Melanie’s “Sorry” was terse, but she gripped Georgie’s hand tightly across the table. “Did that undead bitch get her hooks into your Alex, too?”

“I think Alex was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” _Because of me,_ Georgie didn’t say, because she didn’t want Melanie to try to convince her of otherwise. 

Later, in bed, she seemed determined to take Georgie’s mind off it, and afterward, there were no bad dreams.

-

Georgie plugged in her earbuds so she could put away her dishes and talk to her mother at the same time. “How’s that girlfriend of yours?” Mum asked, after they finished chatting about a quilt that she’d just finished sewing. Both of her parents still worked, so those crafts usually took a long time to complete.

Georgie’s could feel herself smiling at the word, even now. “She’s actually out of the country right now, doing research for her show.” The fate of _Ghost Hunt UK,_ and the reasons for Melanie’s trip to India, were actually a little more complicated than that, but Georgie didn’t want to try and explain them without checking with her first. “Mum, could you be quiet for a minute?” she asked, closing the cutlery drawer. “I think there’s someone outside.”

“At your door?”

Georgie listened. “In the alley. Probably just a stray animal, but I should check.” She opened the door, shone the light from her phone around the corner of the building, and was pretty sure that she said something like, “I’ll ring you right back,” before ending the call.

The “stray animal” turned out to be Jonathan Sims, several years older and much more disheveled than the last time she’d seen him, and when he stepped into the light, she knew that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her: his shirt and his mouth were smeared with blood.

-

If Georgie had found herself with nowhere else to go after her life had gotten very, very weird, then she would have been grateful to stay with someone who didn’t ask too many questions. So she didn’t demand that Jon explain why he had to flee his job and his home (or whether his weirdness was anything like hers), even after the police knocked on her door while he slept.

He usually slept during the day, and she could hear him moving about at night, possibly cleaning, as she tried to fall asleep. It was dusk when she returned home to find Melanie sitting on her front steps, so he could have been up to anything inside.

“Everything all right?” Georgie asked.

“I guess,” Melanie said, more slowly and distantly than usual. “I think I… might have a new job?” She said it as if she wasn’t entirely sure.

“That’s fantastic!” Georgie sat down beside her. “Where?” Melanie told her. “Very funny.”

“It’s the truth,” Melanie insisted. “I guess I probably wouldn’t believe me, either. It still feels sort of like a dream. I didn’t exactly walk in there looking for work…”

“Wouldn’t have guessed,” Georgie teased, touching Melanie’s knee through the rip in her jeans.

“But I do need it right now. And at least we have some common interests.” Melanie reached up to rub her neck. “The guy who runs the Institute was really nice, actually. He asked me about my show like he was properly interested.” She caught Georgie’s eye. “What is it? You’re not _worried_ , are you?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Georgie said. Whatever had forced Jon into hiding from the Magnus Institute, it had obviously left him a wreck. As the days passed, she remained unsure, even as Melanie seemed committed to earning her place there. 

When Georgie learned what that place actually was, she suspected that she hadn’t been worried _enough_.

-

By the time Jon woke up, the sun had almost set, and Georgie was pacing back and forth, as if she could walk off the guilt and anger.

“Vampires are real” hadn’t been news to her. “I’ve been turned into one” made its own kind of sense when she remembered how he’d looked when he turned up on her doorstep. But then he’d told her what had happened to Melanie and the other Archives staff. “I should have guessed,” Georgie said now. “After she interviewed for her new job, she seemed…”

“Distant?”

“Sort of,” Georgie said. “Detached, like she was reading from a script.”

“That must have been when he… ah, took her,” Jon said with a nod. “As his thrall. She wouldn’t remember – none of us did.”

Georgie stopped pacing. “If I’d put it together sooner, I would have…”

“Would have _what_?” Jon cut her off. “Cornered Elias with a stake?”

“Still kind of tempted to do that.” She couldn’t shake the thought of some monster getting hold of Melanie, sinking his fangs into her neck and his commands into her brain, until she stopped struggling, until she _wanted_ it.

“You’re _not_ going to,” Jon said emphatically, and his voice vibrated in Georgie’s head as well as her ears, and she could feel how pleasant and satisfying it would be to just do what he said…

She clenched her teeth until the buzzing stopped, and glared at him. “Nice try. Don’t do it again.”

“I’m sorry,” Jon said, and sounded it. “I understand the impulse, but if he’s telling the truth… I know!” he added when she scoffed. “If he’s telling the truth _for once_ , then killing him will harm the rest of us. We’re going to have to find another way.” Slowly, she nodded, and he asked, “So… compulsion really doesn’t work on you?” 

“Well, yours didn’t. And there were a couple of End vampires who wanted revenge after I got rid of their sire…” Or “that undead bitch” as Melanie had called her. “But I don’t think they’d been turned that long ago. An older one might have an easier time of it.”

“That’s why I’m asking – and _only_ asking – that you not give Elias any excuse. You’ll be no good to Melanie as his prey.” And then Jon was right in front of her, wrapping his too-cool hands around hers. “I want you to trust that we’ll look after her. I swear that I won’t let anything too awful happen.”

-

Melanie seemed to want a normal evening in. While Georgie waited for her to bring up what they _weren’t_ talking about, she concentrated on cooking dinner for both of them, talking about nearly anything else: the shop where she’d bought the candles for the table, an anime series she wanted to try, and the projects she had planned for _What The Ghost?_ There was a charity livestream that she’d be co-hosting with a colleague, and a convention where she hoped to perform…

But when Melanie, who’d been chopping vegetables at the table, dropped her knife on the floor and stood over it, wide-eyed and trembling, Georgie knew that they couldn’t pretend anymore, if they ever could.

She tried to convince Melanie not to be afraid for her. “I don’t think any of them can hurt me.” She’d discovered that much when a vampire – from which clan, she never found out – tried to bite her and turned into a husk. She still wasn’t sure why it had happened, and she preferred to carry a stake where she could, just in case.

“But _I_ could.” Melanie looked more terrified than Georgie had ever seen her. “If he wanted me to.”

“You’re stronger than that,” Georgie said firmly.

“Were you strong enough to say no to _your_ master?” Melanie snapped. “What if she hadn’t killed Alex? What if she’d made _you_ do it?”

Georgie released her hands. How long had it been since she’d last felt tears welling up in her eyes? “I’d have to live with that,” she whispered. “But I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t regret meeting Alex, or… or what we meant to each other. I know that I can’t – I _won’t_ – lose anyone else to this vampire bullshit. And you can’t just cut off everyone outside your work because you’re afraid of what might happen.”

“Like you know how it feels to be afraid,” Melanie shot back. “Maybe if part of you wasn’t _missing_ , you’d know that I don’t have a fucking choice.”

Georgie felt like she’d been slapped. “Okay, I don’t know why you said that, but I did _not_ deserve it.”

Melanie covered her eyes. “Shit. No, you didn’t.”

If Georgie understood Jon correctly, Melanie _did_ have a choice, but suggesting that she tie herself to another vampire would probably piss her off more. “Maybe we should talk about this another time.”

“Maybe. But you need to give me space until then. I have to figure some things out, and I can’t keep worrying about whether he’s watching us. And, yes, that’s as fucking creepy as it sounds.”

“So you think Bouchard will just leave me alone if he knows we’re not dating?” Georgie rolled her eyes. “Come on, Melanie; stuff like that doesn’t even work in the movies. You know, with superheroes and spies and the like, trying to protect…”

“I never said I was sure it would work. But maybe he’ll think he’s won.”

“Hasn’t he?” Melanie didn’t answer, and Georgie exhaled. “Okay. Do what you need to do. I think some space is what we both need right now.”

-

The next time they saw each other, Melanie had made her choice. Georgie tried to accept it as a new beginning.

All the same, she resolved to remind Jon, very soon, that he’d made a promise. She wasn’t sorry that he was back in her life, even under these circumstances, and she was more than glad that he’d managed to escape repeated kidnappings by rival clans. As far as she could tell, he didn’t want his thralls to be afraid of him, or of themselves. But if he hurt Melanie, Georgie would make him _wish_ that she’d staked him. And she didn't hesitate to tell him that to his face.

-

A new beginning didn’t mean that any of their old struggles had ended, or that Melanie didn’t look at sharp objects with a mixture of apprehension and longing.

When they were trying to talk through the aftermath of a particularly bad argument, she growled, “My head’s been such a fucking mess lately.” She sat down on Georgie’s bed and drew up her knees. The Admiral rubbed his head against them, and she petted him absently until he curled up on her feet. “That’s not just ’cause of the stuff I can’t remember. Ever since I got back to London, it’s like someone’s turned up the volume on every angry thought I’ve ever had.”

“What do you mean ‘someone’?” Georgie asked, frowning. She could tell herself – tell both of them – that Melanie had plenty of reasons to be angry, and while that was true, denying the less mundane possibilities hadn’t helped either of them so far.

“I don’t want to assume it’s more mumbo jumbo!” Melanie said hastily. “That’s like saying the devil made me do it.”

“But you think that it might be?” Melanie shrugged, and Georgie persisted, “What if you’re right?”

“Jon said he could help with the missing memories,” Melanie said. “Maybe he’d… look into the rest, too, if I asked.”

“Is that what you want?” Georgie found herself making an effort, sometimes, not to be ridiculously, unreasonably jealous that her old sweetheart and her new one shared something so familiar to her without actually including her; that Jon could make Melanie feel safe in the way that someone without his powers couldn’t. They’d probably have to talk about that at some point, too, but not now.

“I mean, I trust him, and I know he wants what’s best for us…” Melanie stopped abruptly and cursed again, much more quietly this time. “Will you _listen_ to me? I’m such a…”

“No, no, it’s okay.” Georgie opened her arms.

Melanie uncurled into them. “It feels _right_ to depend on him for everything, but I know I can’t. When I’m away from that place, it’s easier to remember that I don’t want him to keep rewiring me over and over.”

Georgie finally gave voice to the suggestion that had been taking shape in her head for weeks. “Maybe you should talk to someone else.”

“Right.” Melanie somehow managed to give a full-body snort. “I’ll just walk into a therapist’s office and tell them that bloodsucking monsters are controlling my mind. Sounds productive.”

“Or…” Georgie pulled back a little to look her in the eye. “You could tell them that your boss assaulted you, that he’s put you in a situation where you can’t retaliate without other people getting hurt, and that you’re scared and angry all the time. Or you could just say _some_ of that.”

Melanie smirked. “So, obviously, this idea just occurred to you now, and you haven’t given it any thought at all,” she said sarcastically.

“My mum talked me into looking for help, after Alex died,” Georgie explained. “Not saying those sessions miraculously caused me to move on – I’m still working on that – but I started to see how I _could_. Anyway, I had to get a little creative with the truth.”

Melanie lifted her chin. “I _am_ pretty good at that.”

“Exactly. You could also say,” Georgie continued, “that you’re with someone who loves you, and wants you to get better, but can’t be everything to you.” She stroked Melanie’s back. “She’s here for you, though, no matter what you decide.”

“You get that from a ‘Five Ways to Support Your Supernaturally Enthralled Partner’ blog post?’” Melanie grumbled, but she was starting to relax even more.

“If that exists, someone should link me to it,” Georgie replied. “I’ve gotten all sorts of questions from my listeners.” She’d started taking some of those questions more seriously than ever, providing advice and support where she could.

The last thing Melanie said before she fell asleep was, “Maybe we should write the rules ourselves.”

Georgie kissed her hair, thinking that they’d already begun to do exactly that.

-

Georgie’s phone rang as she emerged from the Underground. “Hi, Mum. I’m on my way to pick up Melanie.” They’d planned to walk to the new therapist’s office together, and Georgie would wait with her laptop in a nearby café until the session was over. “Is everything all right?”

It was. Her mother was wondering if the two of them would like to visit sometime soon. “I’d like that,” Georgie said, “We both have projects that need our attention right now, but I’ll talk to her, and maybe we can make a plan.” As far as she could tell, Melanie’s projects involved saving the world from monsters, some of whom dressed like clowns. If she succeeded, maybe they could tell the story together. 

“Oh, I’ve started something new, too!” Mum said happily. “Do you have any clothes that you want to toss away? If you think they’d look good in a quilt, bring them with you!”

Georgie thought of a well-worn blue shirt, with the words “Human Rights” still clearly legible, tucked away in one of her drawers. “Yeah, I think I can find something,” she said as she turned the corner.

Although she was hardly expecting Dracula’s castle, her first visit to the Magnus Institute wasn’t any more unsettling – on the surface – than a visit to any ordinary library or museum. The smiling woman at the front desk directed her to sign the visitor’s logbook, and Georgie briefly considered scribbling an exquisitely poisonous message for Elias Bouchard (it was what Melanie would have done, if she could), but made herself put down the pen after filling in her name and destination.

She wasn’t sure what she’d do if she ever met him in person. Melanie had taken a long time to reveal even a few details of what he’d done to her, and she still relived much of it in her nightmares. But if she could keep her supernatural rage in check while they figured out how to calm it down, then Georgie thought she could restrain herself from acting on that completely human anger at the creature who had ruined so many lives.

The receptionist directed her toward the Archives, and Georgie found herself thinking, _Never have I ever waited for my girlfriend while her vampire master fed her his blood,_ as another archival assistant (Jon had told her enough about Martin that she recognized him on sight) hovered nervously nearby.

The door to the office opened. Melanie greeted her with a quick kiss and a fierce embrace, and Georgie knew that some things weren’t _ruined_ in any way that mattered. Over her shoulder, she could see Jon offer a tentative smile. “I’ll be just behind you, okay?” she told Melanie, and whispered to him, “Remember your promise,” knowing that he’d hear her.

“Always,” he murmured back, though he looked vaguely affronted that she thought he might have forgotten.

Georgie found herself gripping Melanie’s hand as they stepped together into the sunlight.


End file.
